


Rekindle Our Love

by eugeneismyqueen



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Tangled (2010)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst with a Happy Ending, COVID-19, Coronavirus, F/M, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, New Dream, Quarantine, but it will get better, divorce tease, lockdown love, oh they also live in New York, this is really angsty im sorry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:14:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26055550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eugeneismyqueen/pseuds/eugeneismyqueen
Summary: Rapunzel and Eugene’s marriage is on the brink of collapse. They lead busy lives with their jobs and never make time for each other anymore and when they are around one another, they just seem to be at the other’s throat. Rapunzel is ready to end their marriage but when they are forced into lockdown together due to COVID-19, will they rekindle their love?
Relationships: Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider & Rapunzel, Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22





	Rekindle Our Love

Rapunzel had long since stopped waiting up for Eugene to come home anymore. In fact, there were some days where she didn’t see her husband at all. She knew he’d been home though, because his pillow will have moved, along with his toothbrush, and there would be fresh clothes in the hamper that weren’t there the night before. 

They’d been out of sync for a while, the Fitzherbert’s. It had started maybe when Eugene stopped kissing Rapunzel goodbye on his way to work, or perhaps it was when she had stopped getting up to make him coffee before he went. She couldn’t be sure when things had changed. Only that they were here now.

He stumbled home drunk late into the night at least fives nights out of seven each week. He’d started doing this regularly about six months ago. At first, she’d been concerned and worried. Now, she was happy he kept away. Maybe she should address the problem, but he was no good when he was drunk. She didn’t like dealing with him when he was drunk. And when he wasn’t drunk, when he was home, he was grumpy, hungover, and grading papers. 

So Rapunzel brought their Great Pyrenees, Max and their cat, Pascal up into bed with her each night. Because she was not going to cry over her husband ruining his life and their marriage when she had her loyal animal companions to snuggle with. 

As a successful architect and a part time art consultant, Rapunzel was able to keep herself distracted long enough that she didn’t realize her marriage was falling apart at first. No, it wasn’t until she was having lunch with her friend, Faith, that she realized. Faith was gushing about her marriage, she was happy, in love, and content. And she had two kids with another on the way. 

The Fitzherbert’s didn’t have kids yet, they’d pushed aside starting a family in favor of pursuing their professional careers and establishing some security in their world before thinking about raising kids. Sometimes she laid awake in bed wondering if they should have gotten pregnant right away. She had met Eugene when she was 18, had married him at 21. She felt too young then to be raising babies when she still had a whole life ahead of her to live. She was only 26 now and still felt too young. 

She rolled over onto her side, watching the electric clock flip numbers: 2:01 a.m. 

_Maybe she had been wrong._

Eugene crashed up the stairs. Drunk. As usual. 

“Baby?” He said. “You’re still up?”

“Couldn’t sleep.” She sighed. 

He barely managed to kick off his shoes before climbing into bed, forcing Max to move to Rapunzel’s feet. The big dog eyed Eugene warily. Rapunzel didn’t think Max liked when Eugene smelled like that. Like he’d drank the whole bar. 

His hands reached for her, wandering over her skin too sluggishly to feel like him. 

“It’s late, babe.” She rolled over so she wouldn’t have to face him. His hands drew back.

“Rapunzel?”

“Goodnight, Eugene.” 

She heard him huff. Five minutes later, he was snoring. 

That was the longest conversation they’d had in awhile. 

Rapunzel eyeballed the suitcase in the corner. She’d had it packed for a week now. She was planning on telling her husband this weekend that she wanted a separation. Then she would head to her parents house and figure out what to do from there. She figured it would be best now, since it was about to be spring break and if she was going to take the first steps in ending their marriage, at least he’d have the week off to recover. Or be sloppy drunk for seven consecutive days in a row. 

Rapunzel woke up the next morning to an empty bed and the smell of coffee and something cooking in the kitchen. She pulled on her silk dressing gown and shoved her feet into slippers before going downstairs. Her husband was humming, making pancakes, a fresh pot of coffee and two mugs waiting. The morning’s paper was spread out on their kitchen table. 

“Eugene?”

He looked up at her, pushing his glasses up his face and smiling. “Baby! You’re up!”

It was Saturday. They tended to avoid each other on Saturdays lately. Rapunzel would busy herself with her art consultation gig or run errands, and she assumed Eugene would sleep off his hangover for most of the day. 

But today, she had nothing planned. Nothing on the agenda except ending her marriage and walking out on Eugene, that is. 

Except Eugene only cooked pancakes when he was worried or anxious about something. Normally he preferred her to make the pancakes in this relationship because she makes “the best pancakes in the whole fucking world.” Eugene’s words from when they met, not hers. 

“What’s wrong?”

A confused frown brought down his smile, his eyebrows knitting together. “Wrong? Why would something be wrong?”

“You never make pancakes unless something’s bothering you.” She didn’t mean to sound so accusatory. She really didn’t. But she was tired of this game they played where they danced around the larger problems at hand. 

“Why can’t I just make my beautiful wife some pancakes?” He lifted an eyebrow, challenging her. 

“Eugene…” she frowned, crossing her arms over her chest. 

He sighed. “Look, baby. I know we’ve been busy lately, but it’s spring break.”

He looked at her as if that would just fix everything between them. As if one single week could repair the damage of his six months of drinking problems, could help them remember what they even loved about each other.

“So?” She said. “Babe, spring break will come and go and we’ll be right back to keeping ourselves so busy on purpose just so we don’t have to see each other.”

His mouth pinched into a tight line. “That’s not fair, Rapunzel.”

“Are you still drunk, Eugene?”

He was angry now. 

“I didn’t have much to drink last night.”

“Sure didn’t smell like it.” She looked away, because if she looked at him she might start crying. And she was not going to cry over this. 

“Is that why you’ve been so mad at me lately? Because I like to destress at the bar a couple nights a week?”

“Oh, it’s more than a couple nights a week, Eugene. God, I rarely know that you’ve even made it home safe at all!” She threw her hands up in the air, her voice rising in her hysteria. 

“Well you could if you waited up for me like you used to!” 

“I’m not staying up half the night every single night just waiting for you to stumble in drunk and get handsy with me, Eugene. You want to talk about what’s not fair? _This._ Isn’t fair.” 

Max came barreling down the stairs, barking his head off just as the smoke alarm started beeping. One of Eugene’s pancakes was burning on the stove. 

“Shit! Well great.” He said, angrily flipping the stove off. “Now breakfast is ruined.” 

“It’s a damn good thing I wasn’t hungry, then.”

She turned to walk out of the kitchen and back up the stairs. 

“Rapunzel, where are you going?”

“I’ll figure it out, Eugene.”

He looked up at the ceiling and released a heavy sigh. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed that goddamn suitcase you have packed upstairs.”

She stilled, one foot raised on the step, her hand frozen on the banister. 

“W-what?”

“The world is shutting down babe. You haven’t had an art consultation gig in weeks because of it. And you’re not gonna be able to leave me and get to your parents in the city, because it’s getting so bad the city’s shutting down.”

“What are you talking about?”

He lifted his mug of coffee and gestured over to the paper on their table. “Don’t believe me? Take a look for yourself.”

She approached the table and felt her heart stop at the headlines on the _New York Times:_ THOUSANDS DYING DAILY AS NOVEL CORONAVIRUS REACHES NEW YORK CITY. 

This couldn’t be possible. 

She skimmed over the article, words like “lockdown,” “pandemic,” and “school closures” popping out at her. 

“W-what??”

“If you really want to know why I was making pancakes, Rapunzel. It’s because of this. Because I don’t know if I’m going to have a job to return to in a week. School ended yesterday and the president of the university is already discussing extending spring break another week. Shit’s pretty real right now, sweetheart.”

And now Rapunzel felt like an ass. She’d been so caught up in her own world, her own anger at Eugene, that she’d failed to see how very serious the Coronavirus had gotten in the last month. 

She slumped down into her chair. Eugene padded over with a plate of pancakes for both her and himself, and sat opposite her, tossing Max pieces of pancakes whilst looking over the other articles in the paper. The tension was heavy between them, and Rapunzel felt like she might start to drown. 

They were nearly done with breakfast when Eugene spoke so quietly, she almost didn’t hear him. “So, you wanted to go away for a little bit? Get away from me?”

She looked up at him, his gaze was fixed on her. 

“Eugene, I-“

He shook his head. “Save it, Rapunzel.”

“I’m not going to leave you.” She didn’t know why she said that, she couldn’t promise that. She was still planning on leaving him ten minutes ago before he figured it out on his own. 

“It doesn’t change the fact that you wanted to.”

“This isn’t how I wanted to tell you,” she looked away again, feeling her eyes prickle with tears. 

“I know.”

“I’m sorry about the school.” She did feel bad about his job. And regardless of how angry she was with him, he was still her husband. She still loved him, she just didn’t like him very much lately. 

“It’s fine. Everything’s still up in the air.” 

She nodded. He picked up her plate and started doing the dishes. 

She went back upstairs and unpacked her bag. 

She heard the top popping off of a beer can from downstairs. She closed her eyes and sighed, feeling tears well up from deep inside of her. 

She dialed her mom and repacked her bag again just in case.

**Author's Note:**

> ... I’m really sorry... 
> 
> This first chapter was pretty hard to write because I can’t envision the healthiest couple I know to ever have a marriage that falls apart. So I did draw a little bit from ‘This Is Us’ for inspo, and I have quite a few tricks up my sleeve. Basically, everything you think you know isn’t 100% the truth. 
> 
> But don’t give up on me or New Dream, things will get worse before they start to get better. Just bear with us. I really hope you’ll enjoy this story.


End file.
